Friday, April 3, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi




Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the second book in Tomi Adeyemi's YA Fantasy "Legacy of Orisha" series which began with 2018's "Children of Blood and Bone" (Review Here).  That first book was one of the more hyped books in 2018, getting a massive publicity push, a place atop the Times Bestseller's list, etc.  It also managed to win both the Norton (Nebula) and Lodestar (Hugo) awards for Best Young Adult SF/F last year, so it did fairly well critically as well.

And honestly, I enjoyed the novel a bit (I had it 3rd on my hugo ballot), even if I didn't think it hit the level of greatness I hope for in a book so hyped.  It featured a really well built African-culture-based (Nigerian most prominently I believe) fantasy world, a couple of really interesting lead characters and strong themes of facing up to oppression, racism and privilege.  But it also featured characters who kept wavering back and forth on their beliefs, including one major one who did so implausibly, a comically evil antagonist, and some more skin deep characters along the way.  The story ended on a strong cliffhanger which certainly made me excited for more, hopefully with stronger more concise and believable character arcs.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance is.....not what I was hoping for however, with the weaknesses of the first book returning in force - if not becoming worse - the characters continue their wavering back and forth between their beliefs and goals in almost comical fashion, the main antagonist is again comically evil and despite that one major character can't resist sticking by them, and the plot shoehorns things along at sometimes a way too quick pace.  Moreover it all ends with a cliffhanger ending that requires greater skill to make work than Adeyemi has demonstrated in these two books and is almost laughable as a result.  The themes here continue to be strong - cycles of oppression, the temptations and evils of power, racism and hatred, etc. - but Adeyemi's work with those teams is hamstrung by how she failure to develop her characters in interesting believable ways, making this one a disappointment.

Warning: Spoilers for Children of Blood and Bone are inevitable in this review.

--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
Zélie and Amari have succeeded in bringing magic back to Orisha....but the ritual worked better than they knew, restoring magic not just to the maji, but to the Nobles who backed the oppressive Orishan monarchy as well.  These Tîtáns possess great magical power that they can use even without the Yoruba rituals and wordings that the maji require, and their creation has only caused further chaos in the balance of power.  Now one of these tîtáns, Amari seeks to stop the chaos by taking her father's throne, while Zélie just wants to grieve for her dead Baba.

But when they return to the center of Orisha, they find a surprise: Amari's mother is still alive and is the most powerful tîtán ever seen, and she has guided the rest of the monarchy to use their new magical powers to try and kill off all whohe  oppose her, including Amari, and to annihilate the renewed maji.  Immediately on the run, the two find themselves on the other side of a civil war with the maji revolutionary group, who now fight believing that piece with the monarchy, with Amari's family, is impossible.

As the one who brought back magic, Zélie finds herself in a position of power and the leader of a force that could possibly help her get her revenge for her Baba.  But Amari only sees in all of this a conflict that threatens to end all life in Orisha, whether noble or of maji/diviner blood, and staying together with Zélie may not be possible.

The two friends will have to decide their paths, and all of Orisha's future will hang in the balance, and nothing will ever be the same in the end.....
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Like the last book, Children of Virtue and Vengeance is split into a ton of chapters - 90 plus the epilogue - with each chapter told from the first person perspective of each of our three most prominent characters: Zélie, Amari, and, in a surprise return, Inan (this is a minor spoiler, but he shows up early enough that I feel comfortable talking about it).  The center of this story is a renewed conflict - a war this time around - between the magi/diviners and the royalty, with all three characters having their own perspective as to how the war should go, and what should be the future of Orisha, even though Amari and Zélie generally remain in the same place on the magi side of the war, while Iman finds himself with his mother and the noble side of the war.

The result is a story that feels a bit rushed at times - rather than there being chaos and confusion at magic being revived and given to many who never would have had it for instance, the nobles have an entire army of tîtáns and Amari's mother Nehanda has already discovered how powerful that makes her in the time between books, while the magi have a full organization and tribal structure back in place (that one at least is explained).  Still, aside from the rushing to set things up at times, the plot moves at a good pace, and is very easily readable - while this isn't a short book, it moves quick enough that it isn't a long read.

Unfortunately, that's probably the most positive I can be about this book, which has so many flaws at times it's going to be hard not to rant.  As I said in my review of the last book, the characters waiver in their decision making and plans of action repeatedly, and that's even more noticeable here, with both Zélie and Amari flipping their views on how things should go forward multiple times throughout to the point of being jarring - for example, Zélie starts the book grieving and not willing to fight any longer, then decides to fight and destroy the royalty for revenge, then decides she wants her people to flee, and then that she wants to fight one more time....seriously, back and forth, and Amari is only slightly better.  It's gets really annoying and circuitous, as we just saw these things happen earlier in the book, as if character development needs to be repeatedly constantly.  The two characters do have some consistent personality traits - for example, half of Amari's problems come from her trying to follow her father's voice in her head to act directly and thus impulsively, resulting in some rash crazy decisions - but their constant waivering is really annoying.

And then there's Inan, who oh my god why.  Sorry that wasn't a sentence, but there's no other way to show my exasperation - this is a character who spent the last book learning how bad his privilege blinded him to his father's oppressive evil and falling in love with Zélie, only to at the last minute change his mind, help his evil father take Zélie's Baba (getting him killed) and then finished the book getting killed by his evil father.  So when he somehow inexplicably turns out alive in this book, you'd figure he'd have learned right?  Nope!  He winds up instead following his blatantly racist and evil mother - who is not subtle at all in her evil - and letting himself be persuaded after his limited attempts at reconciliation fail to go along with her oppression.  It just makes him look incredibly dumb and gullible and just an awful guy, to say nothing of how he could still be presented as a long shot love interest for Zélie in this book (keywords being "long shot", given she wants to kill him for revenge for the entire book).  If he wasn't a viewpoint character this might be less annoying but he is, and his repetitive character arc from the last book is just painful to read.

Spoiler in ROT13:  Va gur raq, vg gnxrf uvf zbgure nqzvggvat fur senzrq gur Znwv sbe na nggnpx ba gur eblnygl - juvpu cebzcgrq gur bccerffvba nsgre zntvp qvfnccrnerq - sbe Vana gb ghea ba uvf zbgure naq onfvpnyyl tvir hc svtugvat sbe gur eblnygl.  V zrna vg'f tbbq gung gurer jnf fbzr cbvag gung jbhyq grnpu Vana ur'f ba gur jebat fvqr, ohg vg'f fb fghcvq ubj zhpu vg gnxrf sbe uvz gb svther bhg uvf zbz vf nf rivy nf uvf qnq.

Other characters mind you are a bit half baked, to the point where they're easy to confuse (the maji clansmen in particular).  Tzain, Zélie's brother and Amari's love interest, again doesn't get a POV, and just feels kind of there, without much development on his own.  And then there's Roën, the mercenary who seemed like little more than a plot device in the first book.  He returns here with a greater role, but still disappears for large stretches, and eventually his development into a love interest for Zélie just feels rushed and not developed at all - why does he fall for her?  Again he feels more like a plot device than a developed character, with his secrets seemingly forming the way for the surprise ending.

And oh my god, that ending.  It's a gutsy ending for a book that clearly takes place in a fantastical version of Africa, mainly Nigeria, with the culture of the region used quite openly in the setting without changes of names of the language or deities or whatever.  And it's one that a better writer, who has shown better skills at plotting and character development, could have made incredibly intriguing as a surprise that kind of makes sense for such a setting.  But here it just feels out of nowhere, even if hints toward that ending are there if you think about it, and an utterly laughable way to transition the plot from dealing with the conflict at the center of this book into a new conflict for the next book.  No seriously, I literally laughed.

Spoiler for the ending in ROT13 because I have to discuss this:  Nsgre na ragver obbx nobhg gur pbasyvpg orgjrra gur zntv naq gur abovyvgl, Méyvr svanyyl vf nobhg gb jva, jvgu ure nobhg gb znxr gur svany pubvpr bs xvyyvat Vana naq gur abovyvgl univat snyyra.....rkprcg vafgrnq fur svaqf urefrys xabpxrq hapbafpvbhf ol n fgenatr tnf....naq jnxvat punvarq ba n fuvc pebffvat gur bprna jvgu nyy bs gur bgure punenpgref (be ng yrnfg Nznev).  Fb guvf obbx srnghevat na Nsevpna frggvat sbe gjb jubyr obbxf vf abj tbvat gb fuvsg gb bar bs rfpncvat be qrnyvat jvgu gur fynir genqr?  Yvxr gur zbfg sberfunqbjvat bs guvf vf gung Ebëa'f aba-Nsevpna zrepranevrf fhttrfg gung gurer vf fbzr npgvba gurl ner gnxvat nsgre gur pbasyvpg, naq vg'f pyrne gurl'er erfcbafvoyr nf fynir genqref, ohg bu zl tbq, vf vg bhg bs abjurer, naq vg nyybjf sbe gur nhgube gb whfg pbzcyrgryl fxvc gur znva punenpgref univat gb ohvyq n arj ynaq bs Bevfun bhg bs gur nfurf.  Tbq, vg'f fb fghcvq.   

I will not be back for the third book in this series, and I suggest you not be back for this one - it just takes all the weaknesses of the first novel and exacerbates them in every way possible.
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